Ford has big plans for historic Detroit train station it just bought

It used to be the tallest station in the world when opened in 1913

Ford has acquired a historic Detroit landmark, the Michigan Central Station built in 1913, which had lain abandoned for years. Now the Blue Oval wants to turn it into “the hub of a campus for advanced automotive technology in the Corktown neighborhood.”

According to the Detroit Free Press, the deal also included a nearby school book depository, and Ford will announce its full plans for the site come June 19. Apparently, the automaker intends to buy more property in Crocktown, a historic neighborhood just west of downtown Detroit.

During its peak use years, in the 1940s, over 200 trains left the station each day, moving some 4,000 passengers. The building started to become irrelevant as a railway station after the Second World War and its owners had several attempts to sell it - in 1956 and 1963. It never really served purpose afterward, laying completely or partly closed until all activity on site ceased in 2004.